Primary Location
Amenities
Accessibility
Wheelchair accessible entranceWheelchair accessible restroomWheelchair accessible parking lot
Planning
Appointments recommended
Amenities
Restroom
TL;DR: Good for immediate emergency, avoid overnight stay if at all avoidable. Force them to give you your back up options. Corporate America sucks!
I waited a few months to write a review to let the emotions of experiencing the ER subside. I took my diabetic dog in late May for an eye emergency upon the recommendation of my vet (it looked like a low glucose event). They took him in right away and explained what procedures would be needed and their cost to check him out (gen exam fee, full blood panel, some eye tests) which ran me nearly $1000 but it seemed realistic for ER care (yay America). The blood tests come back normal (for a diabetic) but the eye tests showed she was experiencing high eye pressure which is a painful condition for dogs. The ER doctor explained the plan, treating with drops and seeing if the pressure subsides/repeat x3. If that did not work, she would go over the next step. Unfortunately, the drops didn't work.
This is where my experience soured a bit. The doctor, as promised, explained the next step (a different treatment involving pain meds), she recommended I go home, they would do the treatment, then reach out to me to see if it improved my dog's situation or whether different treatment/hospitalization would be recommended. They even offered to feed and administer my dogs insulin (more on that later). Not even 10 min later as I'm driving home, I get a call from support staff and she right away launches into quoting me the cost of my dog's overnight visit ($2500 FYI, on top of the $1000 I'm already out). I'm like, well what happened? Did the last treatment not work? She seems confused. I tell her the doctor was supposed to talk to me after the treatment, can you figure out what happened with my dog? She puts me on hold. She returns and tells me they haven't finished with the treatment yet but they're recommending an overnight stay (no other alternatives are brought up). At this point my head hurts so much and I want to cry because I'm already out a lot money and my dog is no better. I ask them to give me a few minutes to think about it. I call them back and I tell her I can't do the bill and I'll just pick my dog up and follow up with her vet in the a.m. and ask if she's ready. Well, this is where "we haven't finished with the treatment" turned into "we haven't started the treatment" which really pissed me off but also reassured me that I was making the right decision by pulling my dog out. Obviously my dog's condition isn't that urgent if you can delay this emergency treatment. About two hours later, I was able to pick up my dog, who fortunately seemed in better shape. The support staff seemed a bit embarrassed and explained something along the lines that "hospitalization was the best recommendation, blah, blah". I was very tired and pissed at this point but kept it together enough to extract an alternative follow up plan.
Side note regarding medications. Bring all of your dog's meds with you. Avoid having to buy meds from them where possible. The markup is INSANE! I get that it's an ER but still. The offer to give my dog their insulin? $200+. To put that in perspective, a dose of my dog's insulin cost $2/dose. I am very lucky that I grabbed by dog before they were able to administer (oh yea, the last treatment cost me another $200 for a total of $1200).
The doctors seem good but this place is rampant with corporate greed. ERs suck in general, try to avoid except in the most dire of circumstances. Their default appears to be to recommend hospitalization. Stand your ground and force them to offer alternatives.
I was a bit wary to come to LAASER based on the negative, money-grabbing reviews. Our dog became really sick and had to be hospitalized, and unfortunately our neighborhood hospital could not take her but LAASER had space.
Our experience with LAASER was great, the team was predominantly patient in explaining treatment plans and being transparent about billing. Dr. Showmaker was incredibly empathetic and kind. We feel they cared about our dog and saw similar treatment to all the pets who came to their location. We didn't find the pricing more expensive than our local VCA, in fact, it was marginally less expensive. They also offered 12 hour follow up for free in the case our dog spiked a fever again, which was nice.
Overall, we would return.
